ROOM: STRONG
by thewomanwhosoldtheworld
Summary: She chooses to give me her strong in the only way she knows how, like she always does, because she's Ma... A look at events years after the movie, JACK POV


A/N: so I saw the film first then I read the book in an afternoon, I loved both. The film has stayed with me in a way I have never experienced watching a film so I had to write something, anything and this is what resulted. It is set after the film. Thanks for reading and reviewing if you do. I own nothing.

Summary: She chooses to give me her strong in the only way she knows how, like she always does, because she's Ma... A look at events years after the movie, JACK POV

 **ROOM: STRONG**

 **SIX**

When I'm six Ma and I spend the whole day at the beach watching the sea. She smiles at me with one of those rare smiles that she saved for me only on my birthday's in Room, the ones that touch her eyes.

I never want her eyes to stop smiling.

 **TEN**

When I'm ten Ma and I spend the whole day at the shopping mall. We always spend my birthday together.

"Ma when is your birthday?" I ask because I never really have before. Her eyes go blank and I'm afraid she will be Gone but since we left Room she is Gone less and less.

"Ma?"

"It doesn't really matter." She says. I promise myself to ask Grandma when Ma's birthday is next time I see her.

 **TEN AND A BIT**

When I'm ten and a bit I make Ma a present for her birthday, Grandma helps me. It's a cake like the ones she always makes me but it says thirty on hers.

When the sun comes up I run into her room and jump on the bed beside her.

"Ma, Ma!"

She rolls over, she doesn't open her eyes.

"Jack? I studied late last night. I told you not to wake me up early."

Ma's been studying to write, when I ask her what she always says 'anything I like.' I don't see why she has to study to write anything she likes.

"But Ma I have something for you. A birthday present."

Her eyes snap open.

"My birthday?"

"Yeah your thirty, come on." I pull at her arm and she slowly gets up, I lead her out of her room by her forearm and go to the kitchen.

I open the fridge and pull out her cake. It looks like the one we made in Room when I was five but it has all different candles on top and it is bigger.

"Jack..." She says my name softly and I look up, there are tears in her eyes and I frown. Grandma told me that adults cry sometimes when they are happy, I wonder if these are one of these times.

Ma lifts me up onto a stool by the bench and she hugs me hard all over. When she pulls away she rests her hand on my head and smiles.

"I love you Jack."

I'm so happy.

"I love you Ma." I reply smiling back at her.

 **FOURTEEN**

The day after I turn fourteen Ma introduces me to Bryan. He makes her laugh, her smiles always touch her eyes when she is around him.

That's good enough for me.

 **TWENTY ONE**

The day I turn twenty one I introduce Ma and Bryan to my girlfriend Rose. Ma likes her name, and talks with her four hours on end while Bryan and I watch a football match on tv.

Bryan tries to convince me that I should try 'real' football instead of Soccer, I laugh it off like I always do.

By the end of the day it's just me and Ma like it always is on my birthday, sitting on a couple of chairs near the hammock watching the sunset.

Bryan is inside keeping himself busy while Rose has gone home.

"Do you like her Ma?" I ask and she smiles, lifting her hand she rests it on my forehead and ruffles my hair like she has so many times before.

"She makes you happy, that's good enough for me." She says repeating something similar I told myself a number of years ago.

When her hand drops to her side again I look up at the darkening sky and smile.

I'm so happy.

 **TWENTY FOUR GOING ON TWENTY FIVE**

Three months before I turn twenty five I tell Ma Rose is pregnant.

I've never seen her so happy in my life.

Of course she has told me many times that the happiest day of her life was when I was born that's why she could never be sad on my birthday even when we were in Room all those years ago, I swear though going by her expression right now this must at least equal it.

I embrace her and she cries more into my shoulder. When I was younger I could never understand why adults would cry when they are happy, now I feel like I could cry until I don't have an ounce of moister left in my body.

 **FIFTY FOUR**

When I'm fifty four Ma tells me she is dying, we sit out on her deck and watch the sun set together.

I feel tears threaten to spill from my eyes, I haven't cried since my second child, my daughter Joy was born.

She pulls me into an embrace and hugs me tightly like she used to.

"I've seen you grow up Jack. I've seen my grandchildren grow then have children themselves. You've saved me so many times Jack, you have no idea. I would have never made it out of Room without you. I would have never lived until now without you. You were my strong when I needed it."

"I'll miss you."

"I know but I will always be with you, in here and here." She points to my head then my heart.

"I just wish there was something I could do." I say and she hugs me tightly again.

"I love you more then you could ever know Jack. You don't need to be my strong anymore."

I look up at the sky and watch the sky darken.

"If there is something after all of this... will you wait for me Ma?" I feel like a child again, when nothing made me more happy then Ma's smile or spending the day with her.

I almost feel like I'm in Room again, where nothing else existed outside of her and myself, that the world couldn't touch us.

I never want this to end.

But all things must end.

She doesn't respond, she just pulls me into a tighter embrace and starts to hum a song to me.

It doesn't matter what song it is, she knows I need her strong now.

She doesn't need mine anymore, but she chooses to give me her strong in the only way she knows how.

Like she always has.

Because she's Ma.


End file.
